Luna Continues To Be Nuisance

Saturday, January 29, 2005
GOLD RIVER, BC – Trouble began when the boat's main engine quit on the way back to Gold River and the situation only became worse when Luna arrived.

"Luna made the last hour of our trip very anxious," said Darlene Booth following the incident which occurred last Sunday (Jan 22nd) in Muchalat Inlet.

Luna, or L98, is the five-year-old male killer whale who's been living alone on the West Coast near Gold River since being separated from his family pod in the summer of 2001.

At first, boaters treated Luna like the family dog by petting the orca and letting it retrieve boat bumpers - illegal acts under federal law which resulted in increased monitoring of boaters and which led to two people being fined.

During the past year, however, Luna's behaviour appears to have changed for the worse, according to some mariners. Last summer, several pleasure boat owners reported that Luna approached their vessels and began rubbing its body on the hull and breaking parts off outboard engines.

They even gave L98 a new name: Lunatic.

Despite efforts by the Canadian and American governments, along with groups who supported reuniting Luna with his family pod, L98 remained in the waters near Gold River when some members of the Mowachaht-Muchalat First Nations Band said the whale embodied the spirit of a dead chief.

During an attempt to capture the whale in order to bring it back to its family pod, local native people paddled out in a traditional canoe and lured Luna away from his would-be captors. That killed the reunification plan and Luna remains in an area where there are no other orcas.

Last Sunday, Peter and Darlene Booth of Quadra Island were returning to Gold River from their fishing floathouse near Bligh Island. The couple was travelling in 24-foot Sea Sport Explorer when the oil line to the main engine began leaking.

Peter had no choice but to shut down the engine and then used his 10-horsepower kicker engine to head back to the dock.

"We had to motor in very slow. What is normally a one-hour journey became a three-hour ordeal," said Darlene.

About an hour away from the Gold River dock, Luna arrived to play with the Booths' boat.

"We didn't see him approach but we heard this 'squeak, squeak, squeak' under the boat and we knew it was the whale," Darlene said.

Luna began to push the boat around and then broke the steering rod off the kicker motor.

"That's a big piece of steel. He hit us hard," said Darlene.

During the next hour, Luna followed while Peter went to the back of the boat and manually steered them to the Gold River dock. Once they approached the dock, Luna left and they managed to arrive safely but Darlene is wary of what will happen next.

"I like to kayak but I wouldn't be comfortable in a kayak with him out there," she said Wednesday. I'm sure he doesn't mean harm, he just wants some company. It was entertaining when he first arrived but now it's dangerous."

Source: The Campbell River Mirror

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